IPLM Overview

About IPLM – Indian Public Library Movement

Public libraries have played an important role in democratising access to information in India which was considerably skewed in favour of the elites of the society in the past. Presently, the public library ecosystem extends from the national level to the state, district, block and village levels. However, in spite of their extensive spread and reach, their conventional mandate of offering reference and lending services did not change much. To a great extent, the Indian public libraries have not been able to leverage the benefits of the digital era that has revolutionised access to information and knowledge. Moreover, at the global level, public libraries are increasingly being seen as means to achieve 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Against this background, the need to conceive a movement around public libraries stems from the fact that despite genuine efforts on the part of the Government of India, public libraries have not achieved the status they deserve in the knowledge economy. Therefore, the Indian Public Library Movement (IPLM), supported by the Global Libraries initiative of Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and hosted by NASSCOM Foundation,has been conceived to re-vitalise the Indian public librariesand bring them back into the mainstream as inclusive knowledge and information centres catering to the 21st century information needs of communities across India.It is envisaged that as a movement, IPLM would grow organically in terms of its scale of implementation, addition of community centric services and transformation in the way information is provided to the community with the help of technology.

IPLM seeks to transform Indian Public Libraries into information and knowledge centres to address the community needs.